Drilling an oil field well for hydrocarbons requires significant expenditures of manpower and equipment. Constant advances are being sought to reduce any downtime of equipment and expedite any repairs that become necessary. Rotating equipment is particularly prone to maintenance as the drilling environment produces abrasive cuttings detrimental to the longevity of rotating seals, bearings, packing glands and drill bits.
A well bore is any hole drilled for the purpose of exploration or extraction of natural resources such as water, gas or oil where a well may be produced and a resource extracted for a protracted period.
The method of drilling a well bore or cutting a configuration to create a tunnel and other subterranean earthen excavations is an exceedingly mutually dependent course of action that, if possible, incorporates and takes into account many variables: to guarantee that a usable well bore or tunnel is constructed. As is commonly known in the art, numerous essentials have an interactive and collective consequence of increasing drilling expenses. These variables may include formation hardness, abrasiveness, pore pressures and formation elastic properties.
In drilling well bores, formation rigidity and an equivalent degree of drilling complexity may increase exponentially as a function of escalating depth. A high percentage of the costs to drill a well bore are derived from interdependent operations that are time sensitive, i.e., the longer it takes to access the formation being drilled, the higher the expense. An important aspect affecting the cost of drilling a well bore is the rate at which the formation can be accessed by the drill bit, which typically decreases with harder and tougher formation materials and formation depth. Another factor is: how often the drill blades or drill bits must be replaced. As a result, drilling costs typically tend to increase significantly, with distance downward or horizontal into a formation.
There have been many considerably diverse efforts to meaningfully increase the effective rate of penetration (“ROP”) during the drilling process and to thereby reduce the cost of drilling or cutting formations by improving drill bit effectiveness. Maurer et al. in “A new approach to drilling”, Oilfield Technology, August 2013 outline several innovative methods with respect to concentrating on the subject of ever-increasing the degree of penetration, exemplifying the remarkable interest, breadth of partaking and noteworthy funds exhausted endeavoring to fulfill the necessity for significantly increasing the ROP.
Three noteworthy efforts of a constant characteristic to importantly increase ROPs warrant discussion relating to this invention. The first two of these efforts involve high-pressure circulation of a drilling fluid as a foundation for potentially increasing the rate of penetration. It is common knowledge that hydraulic power available at the rig site vastly outweighs the power available to be functioning mechanically at the drill bit. Modern drilling rigs skilled in drilling a deep well normally have in surplus of 3000 hydraulic horsepower available and can have in surplus of 6000 hydraulic horsepower accessible while less than one-tenth of that hydraulic horsepower may be accessible at the drill bit.
Innovative procedures must improve this ratio of power loss at the drill bit and provide additional hydraulic or other types of energy to the drill bit to be more efficient.
Comprehensive work conducted in attempting to use drilling fluid entrained abrasives was conducted by Gulf Research and Development Company. This work is described in multiple published articles and is the topic of many issued patents. This body of work instructs the use of abrasive laden jet streams to cut concentric grooves in the bottom of the hole leaving concentric ridges that are then broken by the mechanical contact of the drill bit. There was sufficient illustration that the use of entrained abrasives in conjunction with high drilling fluid pressures produced accelerated erosion of surface equipment and a lack of ability to manage drilling mud density, among other issues.
Directional drilling, both vertical and horizontal, is a useful process for numerous types of drilling such as: utility installation, fiber optic cabling, oil drilling, natural gas, water and sewer lines, etc. One widespread category of directional drilling is horizontal directional drilling (HDD), where a drill tube is essentially extended horizontally to form a passageway underground, thereby eliminating the need for the formation of a trench.
Drill bits in directional drilling typically have a characteristic which enables the drill bit to maneuver in one direction when forced ahead by a drilling device. Force is applied through a drill tube from behind to the drill bit. During a typical well bore operation, the drill bit assembly is usually rotated at a regular rate so that on average, only perpendicular ahead drilling is possible. With the need to change direction, the rotation of the drill bit is briefly stopped, and the drill bit is able to maneuver in the preferred course. When the steering exercise is finished, the drill bit is again rotated at a regular rate for straight ahead drilling.
In many HDD operations, an electronic transmitter called a sonde is coupled to the end of the drill tube. Signals transmitted from the sonde are sensed by a receiver within equipment above ground. A variety of characteristics of the detected signal are then used to indicate such elements as: GPS location of the drill bit, water features, soil aspects etc. ahead of the drill bit. This data can then be utilized to maneuver the drill bit in a desired direction.
There are a multiplicity of approaches for calculating downhole drilling fluid pressure; some of the plans necessitate a temporary termination of drilling operations. These issues incur cost and time delays objectionable to drilling operations in the oil exploration market.
Some systems permit downhole pressure measurement as drilling takes place, usually using electronic pressure measurement apparatus firmly set to the lower portion of the drill bit. These devices are written off in the event that this section of the drill string becomes trapped downhole, and as a result discarded if efforts to liberate the device are unproductive. The drill string above the trapped section is disconnected in some fashion and brought to the surface, leaving behind the drill motor, drill bit, pressure measurement tools and the lower section of the drill string. Such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,297,880 and 4,805,449, both of which are hereby incorporated herein, in their entireties, by reference thereto.
Descriptive tunnel boring machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,443, which is hereby incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference thereto. Additional descriptive prior art tunnel boring machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,613 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,653, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Another noteworthy effort at increasing rates of penetration by benefit of hydraulic horsepower accessible at the bit was described by Curlett, U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,871. This method utilized a specialized nozzle to excite typically pressured drilling mud at the drill bit. The objective of this nozzle system was to increase local pressure fluctuations and a high speed, dual jet form of hydraulic jet streams to more effectively scavenge and clean both the drill bit and the formation being drilled.
Another noteworthy attempt to directly harness and successfully utilize the hydraulic horsepower available at the bit incorporated the use of ultra-high pressure jet assisted drilling. FlowDril Corporation was formed to improve an ultra-high-pressure liquid jet drilling system in an effort to considerably intensify the degree of penetration. The work was based upon by Reichman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,327. The obstacles of pumping and transporting ultra-high-pressure fluid from surface pumping equipment to the drill bit proved both operationally and economically unfeasible. FlowDril Corporation is continuing development of an “Ultra-High Pressure Down Hole Intensifier” as a substitute technology in an effort to commercialize its product. FlowDril demonstrated that producing a cut of a certain width near the hole gage will create increased efficiencies for the mechanical accomplishment of the drill bit. This is cited in the conclusions stated in the article titled “Ultra-High Pressure Jet Assist of Mechanical Drilling” authored by S. D. Veehuizen, FlowDril Corp; J. J. Kolle, Hydropulse L. L. C.; and C. C. Rice and T. A. O'Hanlon, FlowDril Corp. published by SPE/IADC Drilling Conference publications, paper 37579.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,151 discloses a distinct type of mining machine with drill bits that are present with drill bit shaft strain gauges to make available a calculation of the direct load on one or more roller drill bit assemblies. One or more of the drill bit shafts are provided with a strain gauge to provide a measure of the direct load on the roller drill bit assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,026, Yamazaki et al, discloses a mining machine that transports cut bedrock through the bit to the tunneling machine core. In a central region of the bit compartment is provided a debris receiving chamber into which are channeled the front-end portion of a screw conveyor and the front-end portion of a water supply pipe. A rear-end portion of the water supply pipe is connected to a water-supply source disposed in a back area of the tunneling apparatus. The water comes from a water supply source to the debris receiving chamber through its upper opening so that the bit compartment is filled with water which buoys up the rock debris to enable the debris to easily enter the debris receiving chamber through its upper opening under the influence of the rotational movement of the bit compartment. The rock debris received in the debris receiving chamber is transported rearwardly together with water by means of the screw element of the screw conveyor, reaching an outlet opening of an outer sleeve of the screw conveyor, and then dropping therefrom to a rock crusher.
A noteworthy undertaking at increasing rates of penetration was an attempt to directly harness and effectively utilize hydraulic horsepower at the drill bit by incorporating entrained abrasives in conjunction with high pressure drilling fluid (“mud”). This method was summarized in U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,907 by Blange.
Kadrnoska describes, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,514,628, a laid cable configuration containing cables, preferably electric cables, data and information transport cables and/or control cables, in particular fiber optic cables, and fluid transport tubes, to be disposed in galleries, tunnels, shafts, pipes, channels or the like, in particular water and/or waste-water guiding systems. The configuration contains at least one cable to be laid, which can be unwound from a drum from the region of an opening providing access to an installation shaft or access shaft toward the respective pipe or channel, or drawn or fixed in a stationary manner in the pipe, channel or the like. The configuration includes a flexible and/or articulated carrier band having lateral edges that are laid against an inner wall surface of the pipe or the channel.
Subterranean boring machines are used to install a pipe comprised of multiple casing sections or a similar product in the ground without excavating a trench for the pipe. Some boring machines are used to bore a generally horizontal hole and to install a plurality of pipe sections therein between a generally vertical launch shaft or pit and a similarly oriented target shaft or pit. The launch shaft or pit is excavated to a depth permitting the boring machine to be placed in alignment and on grade with the desired underground installation. Boring machines that are commonly placed in such launch pits generally include a track that is located at the bottom of the launch pit and oriented along the desired boring direction, and a carriage that rolls or otherwise travels along the track. The carriage includes a pusher mechanism that is adapted to move the carriage along the track between a start point and a terminal point, and a rotational mechanism that is adapted to rotate a tool carried by the boring machine.
Cody describes in U.S. Pat. No. 7,903,926 an invention using a cable assembly comprising a fiber optic cable and one or more attachment points to allow one or more tethers to optically connect to optical fibers within the cable. The cable assembly may be used as a drop cable for extending optical connections to a plurality of points. An attachment structure is provided for maintaining the tether to the cable to prevent damage to the tether. The attachment structure provides a loose attachment to allow the tether to move relative to the distribution cable, so the tether can move in a generally translational movement, is able to slightly twist, and to have limited lateral movement during coiling, installation, and removal of the cable assembly.
Weaver describes, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,413,964, an optical fiber installation device. A drive wheel may be rotatably positioned in the housing and configured to engage a fiber optic drop provided in the drop receiving channel. The housing may include an air pathway for applying a first flow of pressurized air from an air source to the drive wheel. The first flow of pressurized air may cause the drive wheel to rotate and propel the fiber optic drop through the drop receiving channel.
Dofher describes, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,417,083, a fiber optic network system for a multi-staged installation to a plurality of present and future user locations including an aggregation point, a trunk line with a plurality of optic fiber cables leading from the aggregation point and at least one branch junction location to serve a future cable user. The trunk line includes at least one dark cable having a free end for removal from the branch junction location. The trunk line includes a trunk conduit having opposing side walls defining an interior space between the side walls for housing the cables. The conduit is configured to permit withdrawal of the length of dark cable from the conduit at a stage subsequent to installation of the trunk line to form a branch leading to the future user location. The dark cable stored within the interior of the conduit has sufficient length to reach the location of the future user.
Bostick describes, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,020,436, an invention including a fiber optic seismic sensing system, for permanent down hole installation. The invention includes a multi-station, multi-component system for conducting seismic reservoir imaging and monitoring in a well. Permanent seismic surveys may be conducted with embodiments of the invention, including time-lapse (4D) vertical seismic profiling (VSP) and extended micro-seismic monitoring. The invention provides the ability to map fluid contacts in the reservoir using 4D VSP and to correlate micro-seismic events to gas injection and production activity.